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Ghadeer fire, 19 December 2025 Ghadeer, Al Leri

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2025, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 19 December 2025 in Ghadeer, Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,220 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 164th largest in South Kordofan since 2016 (of 440 with a page). Number 158 in Sudan in 2025, of 390.

Burnt area
3,220ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Dec 2025 – 25 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
2
localities
Started on
19 Dec
2025
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
551MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

20222324

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,794 ha in 2016, 1,304 ha in 2017, 1,018 ha in 2018, 774 ha in 2019, 304 ha in 2020, 503 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,158 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ghadeer where it started
    3,225 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.5 %
  2. Al Leri
    12 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
19 Dec 34.7 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Dec 34.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec 34.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Dec 34.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Dec 35.4 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec 36.3 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec 37.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec after 36.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Dec after 35.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Dec after 35.3 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Dec after 33.9 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
31 Dec after 33.8 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Jan after 35.3 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Jan after 36.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Jan after 35.9 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Jan after 36.0 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 12 Dec 2025
After · 1 Jan 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 22 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10117 µg/m³
Optical depth0.31
171819202122232425262728
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 56Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ghadeer fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 December 2025 and 25 December 2025: 7 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,220 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ghadeer (3,225 ha, 0.5 %); Al Leri (12 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sudan (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.